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Cake Doughnuts

Makes one dozen. You'll need: Rolling pin, Doughnut cutter, Deep pot or Dutch oven for frying, Slotted spoon or spider. Adapted for home kitchens by Halite from the U.S. War Department's Army Recipes (TM 10-412, 1946): scaled down from 100 servings, 1946 ingredients swapped for ones sold today, and the method rewritten. The recipe as printed is the Original version in this recipe's history.

12 servingsBy U.S. War Department on Army Recipes, TM 10-412 (1946)

Ingredients

  • 133g (⅔ cup) Sugar
  • 36g (2 ½ tbsp) Vegetable shortening, or butter or lard
  • 3g (½ tsp) Salt
  • 100g (2) Eggs
  • 97ml (6 ½ tbsp) Milk
  • 339g (2 ⅔ cups) Flour, sifted
  • 21g (1 ½ tbsp) Baking powder
  • Vegetable oil, for deep frying, as needed; or shortening or lard; enough for 2 to 3 inches in the pot

Instructions

  1. 1

    Cream the vegetable shortening, sugar, and salt together thoroughly.

  2. 2

    Add the eggs and mix until smooth.

  3. 3

    Add the milk to the mixture.

  4. 4

    Sift the flour and baking powder together at least three times, add to the mixture, and mix until smooth.

  5. 5

    Roll the dough out on a floured surface to a ¼-inch thickness and cut with a doughnut cutter. Fry in the vegetable oil at 360°F until browned.

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Cake Doughnuts

225 doughnutsBy U.S. War Department on Army Recipes, TM 10-412 (1946)

Ingredients

  • 5 ½ pounds (2¾ No. 56 dippers) Sugar, granulated
  • 1 ½ pounds (¾ No. 56 dippers) Shortening
  • 2 ounces (4 mess kit spoons) Salt
  • 40 eggs (2 No. 56 dippers) Eggs
  • 1 pound 12 ounces (1 No. 56 dipper) Milk, evaporated
  • 2 pounds (1 No. 56 dipper) Water (for milk)
  • 14 pounds (14 No. 56 dippers) Flour, sifted
  • 14 ounces (½ No. 56 dipper) Baking powder

Instructions

  1. 1

    Cream the shortening, sugar, and salt thoroughly.

  2. 2

    Add the eggs to the above mixture and mix until smooth.

  3. 3

    Blend the milk and water together and add to the mixture.

  4. 4

    Sift flour and baking powder together at least three times and add to the mixture and mix until smooth.

  5. 5

    Roll the mixture on a floured table to a thickness of J4 inch, and cut with a doughnut cutter. Fry in deep fat at 360^ F. until brown.

Typed from the page scan above. If the two disagree, go with the scan.

What we changed

  • Cut from the book’s 225 doughnuts to one dozen.
  • Swapped “Shortening” for “Vegetable shortening” (or butter or lard).
  • Swapped “Milk, evaporated” for “Milk, whole”.
  • Added “Vegetable oil, for deep frying” (or shortening or lard; enough for 2 to 3 inches in the pot).
  • Scaled 8 amounts and rounded each to a kitchen measure, like ½ cup.
  • Fixed 1 fraction the scan of the 1946 page misread.
  • Tidied 2 ingredient names.
  • AI rewrote the method for a home kitchen. Tap As printed at the top to compare.

Taken from the log we keep of every edit to this recipe. We left out the line-by-line unit conversions.

Where this recipe comes from

It’s from Army Recipes (TM 10-412), the cookbook the U.S. War Department printed in 1946 for Army mess halls. As a U.S. government work, it’s in the public domain.

See the scanned book →

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